August, 1942
THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
283
Around the King's Table LOUIS T. TALBOT, Editor-in-Chief
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What I Owe My Minister RESPECT. I owe my minister respectful attention. He is the ambassador of God. COOPERATION. I owe it to my minister to search the Scriptures daily to see whether what he preaches is God's truth, and to obey it if it is (Acts 17:11). GENEROSITY. 1 owe my min— ister generosity. If his methods seem strange to me, I must not- be so narrow as to insist that he change them to conform to mine. TRUST. I owe my minister trust. He should be able to serve the church unhindered by idle fault-finding. TIME. I owe my minister time to s e r v e In t he work of the . church, when and where he needs me. ENCOURAGEMENT. I owe my minister encouragement. He has more vexations and annoyances than the average person. PRAYER. I owe it to my min ister to pray for him every day. that God will teach him deeply , in the Word, and that he in turn . may teach others. If my minister is not what I wish he would be, I am probably more than a little to blame. ^ ----- on a part-time basis for the last two and one-half years, is resigning from a very successful pastorate in which he has ministered for eight •years, that of the Second Brethren Church of Los Angeles. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and the Brethren Theological Semin ary. At the University, a graduate teaching fellowship in the field of biological science added to his back ground for helping Christian youth to deal with the claims of modern science in the light of God’s Word. In the second place, the Linguistic* Department at the Institute is to be extended in scope and ministry. Pre viously only courses in Phonetics and Spanish in a d d i t i o n to the Bible languages were taught. Expansion in this department is in line with the latest scientific discoveries in the field of linguistics as developed at Camp Wycliffe and its Summer In stitute of Linguistics which is now in session on the campus of the Uni versity of Oklahoma. This summer’s session of Camp Wycliffe has been attended not only by 130 young people [Continued on Page 318]
Shall Preaching Cease? An Associated Press news release recently publicized the suggestion of a moratorium on preaching. The per son responsible for the idea was the retiring president of the general synod of the Reformed Church in America. He was not intimating that there should be any, limitation of free speech in America, but he implied that his plan might be a good way to combat “ endless talk that says nothing"—talk of which even preach ers are often guilty. Asserting that many a m i n i s t e r “spreads himself out too thin” in his endeavor to be an expert on every line, this plain-spoken preacher de clared: “The time may not be ripe for speech-rationing, b u t t h e r e is value in the idea.” There is much that passes for “preaching" that is not preaching at all in the Bible sense of the Word. This pseudo-ministry brings no one face to face with the Word of God or the claims of Christ. It does not attack sin or warn of hell or point to heaven. Though its language may be beautiful and its subject inspiring, this kind of preaching is, in reality, simply “ endless t a l k t h a t s a y s nothing.” This issue of THE KING’S BUSI NESS has been designated a Preach er’s Number. It is sent forth with the earnest hope that every reader—not only the preacher but the layman as well—may feel a new urge to the more diligent pursuit of “ the old paths, where is the good way” ;Jer. 6:16). Whoever walks those p a t h s with God has something vital to say. “The Honor of His Name” Exposure to a continual din of pro- ,fanity is not the least of the hardship's of Army life to young men to whom the name of the Lord is precious; To find that sin in many forms is simply taken for granted—and this almost' universally—is a new experience to those who heretofore have found their associates chiefly among Christian yojfng people. The letter below was written by a young man who was called by the draft to leave a fruitful work as voung neonle’s director in a city church. From a huge Army training camp he wrote to one of the young
people in the home church as fol lows: “I had a chance to talk briefly to a fellow this morning right after breakfast. He was showing me his new prayer book. He was proclaiming its nicety, using pro fane terms even in that. I asked him why. Except for the few really out-and-out C h r i s t i a n s , these Army f e l l o w s all take swe’aring merely as an inevitable factor in life and count (t only as a bad habit. I told the one this morning that I thought it was an insult to God’s power to say, ‘Oh, it’s just a habit I can’t break —I don’t mean what I say.’ But they continue in the same manner and think they are excused. “Have you s o m e t h i n g with which I could convict them? In other words, they think that as long as they don’t get angry, it’s all right to swear. And then, gambling. O n e f e l l o w w o n seventy dollars off his comrades. Nobody was angry, a n d e a c h iperely said, ‘Oh, I’ll win it back.’ What can you do to convict guys like that? “The whole trouble seems to be in the fact that each guilty signer has too many of . his own kind about him to bind him to his sin ful ways. One who seeks to loose him is thoroughly respected and gains attention, but that’s as far as it goes. I’ve prayed a lot about it and been as plain as a Chris tian attitude would allow. I know that any labor in the Lord is not in vain, but how I would glory in His name if I could see some immediate fruit of the Spirit!" ' A man’s closeness of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ determines, in direct ratio, the degree of his sen sitiveness to sin and his burden for lost souls. Shall men be won to Christ by the victorious witness of Christians in the armed services? Then let Christians everywhere pray. New Courses at Biola The faculty of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles is to be enlarged this fall. First, it is gratifying to report that Paul R. Bauman is to become a full-time professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology. Dr. Bauman, who has been serving the Institute
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